Author Archives: Steve Rhode

The flurry of student loan assistance programs exploding is the latest debt relief pitch rolling out. I’ve covered these here, here, here, and here. An amazing reader sent in a new debt relief mailer through my I Buy Junk Mail program. The consumer lives in Canada but the mailer came from the same notorious postal permit 1297 in Sacramento, California. ... Read More »

A debt industry insider and awesome tipster (send in your tips here) expressed some concern about continued affiliate recruiting emails from World Law Debt who claim to be “leaders in the debt solutions industry.” – Source World Law Debt is facing serious legal actions in Oregon, Illinois, and North Carolina. In Oregon alone they are facing $10 million in damages ... Read More »

A consumer who was investigating the debt relief services offered by US Legal Services Group received a surprise in their contract package sent to them to sign and enroll. Oops, it included the field agent sales script as well. It appears from the documents turned over to me, the consumer was being sold an advance fee debt settlement program by ... Read More »

Operators of Credit Card Interest Rate Reduction Scheme Barred from Telemarketing, Will Turn Over Funds Frozen by Court The Arizona-based defendants behind an alleged fraudulent credit card interest rate reduction scam will be permanently barred from the telemarketing business, and must turn over all of their remaining funds, in order to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. As part of the ... Read More »

A press release out by Advantage Credit Counseling Service drew me to their site today. – Source. While there I came across a good example of the ethical conundrum facing nonprofit credit counselors today. Advance Credit Counseling Service is not alone in dealing with this problem. According to the Advantage Credit Counseling Service website they are a proud member of ... Read More »

This week on Ask Steve I answer reader and viewer questions on how to find an inexpensive wine and what to do about student loans if you are unemployed. In the first question my team and I tasted ten of the least expensive wines in an attempt to find some good deals for little money. Surprisingly, there were some quite ... Read More »

The more I research and study the reality of dealing with student loans through bankruptcy the more I am under the opinion the data does not support the assumptions many have that no good options are available in bankruptcy for student loans. In fact my research appears to show that even for government backed student loans there are some significant ... Read More »

Student Loan Alliance put out a press release earlier this week talking about the training they were giving credit counseling agencies in order to deal with student loan problems. Student Loan Alliance says the credit counseling agencies that participate in their approach and training are The participating organizations are: Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas, Consumer Credit Counseling Service ... Read More »

The Federal Trade Commission has settled with a set of defendants associated with the A+ Financial Center scheme. They were charged in last year’s joint law enforcement sweep against five companies that made millions of illegal pre-recorded robocalls claiming to be from “Rachel” and “Cardholder Services” and pitching credit card interest rate reduction services. In the five complaints announced in ... Read More »

Recently Michael Bovee and I collaborated on an article about the debt validation/debt dispute services being sold by Debt Defense Services. You can read that article, here. Right on the heels of that article I received a document from a tipster (send in your tips here) about a similar sounding company, Debt Defense America. It seems these debt dispute services ... Read More »

Are people being charged inflated legal fees when they get foreclosed on? Well the Colorado Attorney General would like to know more and has filed suit for law firms to fess up. The Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is apparently concerned about law firms that handle foreclosures in the state. While fees are allowed to be passed on they are ... Read More »

A nonsensical press release just out by Debt Consolidation USA warning consumers about credit counseling seems odd to say the least. Let’s go with the assumption the reason for this release was just to try and score some SEO points or something like that. The release refers to an article on their website titled “Reasons to Avoid Credit Counseling.” – ... Read More »

CrossCountry Mortgage is sending out offers for mortgage using the Making Home Affordable logo and offering quick closing loans. I certainly do have to give CrossCountry a hat tip on some items in the mailer. They did a much better job than you often see in the debt relief space. An amazing reader FitGal send in a recent mailer through ... Read More »

A tipster (send in your tips here) alerted me to the fact the State of Colorado is now reporting that as of July 1, 2013 Freedom Debt Relief has had their license cancelled or revoked and reports a disciplinary action. Apparently, Freedom is no longer allowed to enroll new Colorado clients, or collect fees from new OR EXISTING Colorado clients. ... Read More »

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia published a paper by Stephanie Wilshusen which made some very enlightened observations about why consumers struggle with getting out of debt. In the paper, “Meeting the Demand for Debt Relief” it describes the options available to borrowers who seek assistance in managing their debts and discusses the information and incentive problems associated with these ... Read More »

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